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- Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr
Rather than resolutions, Bart starts his photographic year by setting himself a challenge. It went great in 2024, so how did it go in 2025? And what about 2026? Could this approach work for you?
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Notes
Two years ago, based on various discussions of why new year resolutions generally fail, I tried a new approach — a yearly challenge. The idea was to pick a photographic technique or style that I know I’m weak at, and try to practice it more for the year. The hope was that I’d expand my photographic toolbox each year.
My first challenge was wildly successful — this time two years ago I shot almost no monochromes. Worse, I didn’t really have a feel for what would make good monochrome shots that felt truly mine. I'd already developed a style I'm was comfortable with for my colour work, could I ever get to the same level of comfort with monochrome? After a year of intentional practice, I got monochrome like never before. I got to the point where I feel completely comfortably shooting monochromes, and that I'm doing it my way. I don't feel like I'm imitating others, and I now shoot monochromes regularly, as and when the opportunities arise.
Reflecting on my 2025 Challenge
Delighted with the success of my first challenge, is set another one for 2025 — colour itself as a primary subject. Different landscapes and places have very different colour pallets, and my Dad was doing great work capturing the unique colour pallet of Flanders, but none of my work was capturing any of that. If I could learn to shoot without colour, surely I could learn to let the colour itself be the subject?
To help me track my progress on my first challenge I created a series on Glass and aded to it as I posted my monochromes throughout 2024. That worked very well — it let me watch my own progress and kept me motivated throughout the year. So, last January I started a new series for my new challenge.
So how did it go? You can scroll through the series yourself and form your own opinions, but I don’t think it went great. It was not a failure, but I don’t think it went nearly as well as my first challenge. If the first challenge was an A, then the second is a C at best. Not a failure, but I don’t feel transformed in the same way, at least not yet.
Reflecting on the series as a whole now, there are definitely some shots in there I really like, and they're very different to anything I would have shot before I started on the challenge, so I am seeing the world a little more broadly. Ultimately, I think this challenge has been a starting point for a longer term evolution, which is useful, but nowhere near as rewarding as learning to feel comfortable shooting a whole new way.
Something I'm definitely taking comfort from is that my favourite shots are the ones least like my typical colour work. My usual style is very punchy — strong vibrant primary colours, and plenty of contrast and texture. But the challenge shots that strike me as particularly novel are the very opposite of that — much lower contrast, much softer pastel tones, and fewer strong textures.
I think this shot sums up that evolution towards more subtle shots best:
https://glass.photo/bbusschots/5fE3RGItFu0MAcGnJqk6kc
In the past I'd have given up on this shot because of how little contrast there is in the landscape itself, and if I hadn't given up entirely, I'd have pushed those orange tones much harder. But this more subtle and natural shot really does capture the muted but strangely warm tones of a Kildare winter afternoon. Maybe there was some creative growth after all!
Before I pat myself on the back too hard, when I avoid cherry-picking, the overall picture is much less gratifying. The truth is I fell right into the trap I feared I would — fall leaves dominate the series as a whole. Those were the only colour-as-subject shots I was already very comfortable shooting, and really, can you get more cliché when it comes to shots where the colour is the subject? Also, if I was going for more subtle colour pallets, autumn colours are anything but subtle!
I don't want to end on the down-note, so let my highlight three other shots that really stand out to me.
Let's start with those autumn leaves — sure, most of them were very clichéd, very like what I was shooting before, but not all of them. This one one really catches me eye as a I scroll the series:
https://glass.photo/bbusschots/6zKVp0WKP353us9RbIJFSl
Previously, I would not have thought to zoom out like this. But, because I had the challenge in my mind, I noticed both the amazing yellows of the Maple leaves, and the contrast they made with the blue sky. That inspired me to zoom out, to have the contrast as the primary subject, not a single particularly perfect leaf, which is what undoubtedly what I'd have done otherwise. It may not be the kind of shot I intended the challenge to push me towards, but I really like it!
The second shot I want to highlight is also of leaves, but not autumn leaves. The beautiful wild geranium Herb Robert has intricate leaf clusters that start as a light spring green before slowly turning pink, and finally bright red. By mid summer they can be really something special:
https://glass.photo/bbusschots/WRGibssBUePU195v5ZyD8
This wild flower has been one of my favourite muses for years, but I'd always focused on it's wonderful powdery pink flowers. Sure, I'd try to incorporate the leaves too, but always as an secondary subject, always as background rather than subject.
But, because of the challenge I really paid attention to the colourful leaves last summer, and the let me notice the amazing colour contrasts the lush greenery all around the Herb Robert plants provide. I'd never before shot this plant without a single flower in the frame, but wow, was I ever missing out!
The final shot I want to highlight is from early in the year, but it captures my aspirations perfectly — the colour truly is the one and only subject:
https://glass.photo/bbusschots/3oAQOwznjfRj9cjro3CkwQ
This is an utterly unremarkable line of bare trees along a canal. Without the colour pallet, this would be an utterly mundane shot!
The bottom line is that the challenge did inspire me to shoot a few keepers I’d have otherwise missed, but I don’t feel I’ve developed a new skill. It’s more that I’ve started to chip away, slowly, and an underlying weakness that I'm now even more aware of. Ultimately, this challenge is not over, I'm going to keep working on it, possibly for many more years. Maybe it was more successful than I realised at first blush?
A New Challenge for 2026 — Portraits of Places
For many years I created my own calendars as gifts — I would find 12 photos or groups of photos in keeping with some chosen theme, and each shot in a different calendar month. This was a lot of work, but it helped me develop the skill of curating my own work — it forced me to be critical in much more honest way that I was yet comfortable with. Thinking back on it, that enforced yearly self-reflection really helped improve my work.
As rewarding as this was, I just don’t have that kind of time anymore! Also, my family don't really use physical calendars anymore, so these gifts fell out of favour. I retained the idea of using my photography to create truly personal creative gifts, but I branched out from calendars to other things with photos on them. For a few years I did coasters. They were really popular, but but also very robust, so everyone has enough coasters now! Last year I experimented with a custom spiral-bound notebook featuring one of my best monochrome shots from the year's challenge, and those proved really popular. It turns out lots of the people in my life still like writing on actual paper, and they really love having spiral bound notebooks lying around to scribble things down. Unlike coasters, notebooks are consumables, so I think I'll be designing a new notebook each year for at least the next few years!
However, it was while designing this winter's notebook that I noticed a big gap in my portfolio — I loads of shots of the places that are important in my life, and I'm really happy with many of them, but they're almost all landscape-oriented! Almost none of my shots of places are portrait-oriented, so almost none of them are suitable for notebook covers! I had literally just 3 or 4 to choose between for this year’s notebook.
I think this is an example of how small things can have big consequences due to small nudges. I think the placement of the iPhone's physical buttons has been subtly nudging me toward the landscape orientation for years! Now that I've noticed this bias, time to pro-actively tackle it! So, my challenge for 2026 is to shoot more portrait-oriented shots of places.
Final Thoughts
Challenges have proven very rewarding for me. No resolution ever worked for me, but these challenges, they seem to. I’m trying a third time, maybe you might consider something similar for yourself this year?